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The Others: Buried in Spain

Vehicles condemned to a living burial ... what have they done to deserve that gloomy fate? What drives humans to bury a randomly chosen vehicle? As impossible as it may seem, the case of the Plymouth Belvedere in Tulsa -Oklahoma-, which we talked about in a previous article, is not the only burial that has taken place, deliberately, in the world.

Paraphrasing a well-known group theme country Brooks & Dunn, if anyone thought this kind of thing happened "only in America," they were wrong. Here in Spain, more specifically in the Salamanca town of Morille, the Art Cemetery was inaugurated on November 17, 2005, a proposal by the artists Domingo Sánchez Blanco and Javier Utray located on a four-hectare plot and intended to bury works by recognized artistic value or significantly linked to the world of art.

And what was the "graceful" thing that he had the honor of opening such an unusual museum? Well, a 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix owned by Utray, inspiring some of his works and, "therefore, linked to the avant-garde and art in some way," according to one of the websites dedicated to that institution. The car rests under the epitaph on its tombstone: «PIP on TIAK. The grand prix. Writing a tombstone takes half your life. Hard marble. "

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1972 Pontiac Grand Prix, buried in the Morille Art Cemetery, in Salamanca

Another example: In Moraleda de Zafayona, Granada, is the Rafael Carrillo Automobile Museum, whose founder, who died a few years ago, managed to compile a curious and interesting set of more than thirty vehicles. Among them is a 1929 Ford T that was buried near Barcelona.

Rosario, Mr. Carrillo's widow, says that back in 1967, the manager of the scrapyard business located on the Barcelona-Sitges road, commented in a conversation with her husband as at a specific point on the land and after the explosion Spanish Civil War, someone had buried a car so it would not be seized.

It was a specially made bunker to hide the Ford, the roof of which peeked partially out from the wreckage of the other vehicles. Rafael Carrillo wanted to buy the car in order to restore it, but the scrapyard refused to dismantle the pile of junk which was on the burial site.

Nine years later, when the business came to an end, it was possible to excavate and, indeed, there was the T. Or, rather, what was left of it. At the moment it enjoys partially restored the light and the air of the aforementioned Granada museum.

1929 Ford T exhibited at the Rafael Carrillo Automobile Museum (Photo: Alberto Ferreras)
1929 Ford T exhibited at the Rafael Carrillo Automobile Museum (Photo: Alberto Ferreras)

A real burial?

Next, the great dilemma of this short article will be posed: know if the next case to narrate is a true burial. Let's see. The Pinar de Chamartín Metro station, in Madrid, welcomes in its main hall -which we could define architecturally as a gigantic sarcophagus- a tram in perfect running order but relegated to immobility imposed by its current situation.

It is a Charleroi V model manufactured in Belgium, with the original number 477 of the Municipal Transport Company and which circulated in the capital in the 50s. The plaque that reports the history of the tram offers erroneous data, since 477 "buried" is accused of having been the famous tram from which Omar Sharif got off in Doctor Zhivago, movie filmed in the city back in 1965.

The unit that appears in the film - mistakenly numbered 477, a figure actually belonging to the exposed tram - was destroyed when it fell to the ground while it was lowered from a truck after taking part in the filming of the film. The bicycles are for summer, directed by Jaime Chavarri in 1984.

Charleroi V tram exposed on the platform of the Pinar de Chamartín Metro station, in Madrid (Photo: Alberto Ferreras)
Charleroi V tram exposed on the platform of the Pinar de Chamartín Metro station, in Madrid (Photo: Alberto Ferreras)

The one that can be visited at the Madrid Metro station is, therefore, the original 477, which was "buried" when the main hall of the enclosure was covered. According to fans of this type of vehicle, it could only leave its current place if it is dismantled, something unlikely considering the difficulties added by the lack of space at the exits of the station that, so far, seems to be its grave. permanent…

What do you think?

Written by Albert Ferreras

Alberto Ferreras (Madrid, 1968) developed his professional career in the newspaper El País since 1988, where he worked as a graphic editor and editor of the supplement Motor until January 2011. Graduated in Photography, he was a finalist for the Ortega y Gasset Award of ... Read more

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